Heav'n Knows Under This Olive Tree
by Helix Spencer
Summary: "I'm just saying, J, that your great-niece is an incurable psychopath." "Wouldn't the fact that you being my creator make her related to you, by default?" Jarvis asked. Tony frowned thoughtfully, palming the knees of his blue jeans. "No." Tony, Pepper, and Jarvis watch the despicable ALIE from Heaven. Can be read as a stand-alone IM fic. One-Shot only! Spoilerish. Rated T. Enjoy!


**A/N: Surprise-another 100 story! I meant to post this on Earth Day (yesterday) in an effort to be symbolic (don't irradiate the Earth, kiddies) so here's my Earth Day message instead: even if you only recycle one time in your entire life, you'll still have made a difference somewhere! (;**

 **This is inspired by the idea that ALIE could be related to Tony Stark's JARVIS somehow. My imagination kind of took it and ran with it, and thusly, here is my fair warning: this story involves religion. Way touchy subject, I know. I would very much appreciate no flames, because I am _no_ way attempting to impose religion on anybody, or trying to blaspheme. Honest-to-blog, this is meant to be as genuine, touching, and/or fluffy as you choose to interpret. At least, as fluffy as angels discussing genocidal artificial intelligences with a Marvel twist...Apart from that, you'll find that most of the descriptions of Heaven in this story aren't my own conjecture, but drawn from the Book of Revelation, in the Bible, if anybody is interested to read it for yourselves. I know I probably didn't do it any sort of justice. **

**To those who prefer to enjoy this as a stand-alone Iron Man fic: little context is needed, or so I've been informed. To clarify, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, and Jarvis watch from Heaven as an evil artificial intelligence named ALIE takes over the world for the second time, a century after she instigated a nuclear war.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **XOXO, Helix.**

 **Dislcaimer: I don't own the 100, Marvel or it's affiliates, or Party City.**

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"I'm just saying, J, that your great-niece is an incurable psychopath."

"Wouldn't the fact that you being my creator make her related to you, by default?" Jarvis asked.

Tony frowned thoughtfully, palming the knees of his blue jeans. "No."

"Why ever not?"

"That depends on whether we're talking about you, and the artificial intelligence version of you, as two separate entities altogether," Tony pointed out.

"What does it matter? Just because ALIE was artificial intelligence doesn't automatically make her related to me."

"You would at least be her cousin."

"I refuse to accept that. We can't be related, because I wasn't homicidal. If we were 'related,' as you say, that would denote a gene pool, and genes are passed down. That would mean the inclusion of a homicidal gene, or code. If anything, she would be the most closely related to HAL-9000."

"Okay, first of all: she committed genocide. That's different. And way to get technical. Man, I hated that movie."

"Isn't that the funniest thing?"

"No-his creator wasn't nuts."

"I could argue that you're nuts."

"No, you couldn't! Dr. Chandra should've been more specific when he was coding HAL," Tony defended hotly, folding his arms across his white cotton t-shirt. "And so should have Becca. Becca was worse than crazy. She was arrogant, and...radical. Even the last few remaining factions of Hydra avoided her."

"Becca was already a pariah in the scientific community because of her deviant research, though, wasn't she?" Pepper asked them both, walking up to them. Her white sundress swirled around her ankles, and the movement kicked up bits of fluffy white clouds from under her feet.

Tony's head snapped up. "Pepper, hey!"

"Pepper," Jarvis greeted her warmly.

"Hi, you two!" She beamed. "I brought us grape juice!"

Tony accepted the proffered cup and gave her a dazzling white smile. "Thank you, Angel."

She wrinkled her nose lightly. "Ugh, Tony! Doesn't that joke ever get old?"

Tony eyed her. "Are you calling me old-"

"Do not put words into my mouth, Anthony," she said primly. "You know how much I don't like that."

"-because I think that I look pretty good for being one hundred and seventy whole years old, you know."

"Time doesn't matter here! I don't even know why you bother to keep track."

"I'm starting to doubt whether you even fully appreciated my youthful good looks on Earth."

Pepper rolled her eyes and perched on Tony's knee. "You know that I did. I think you look very nice, actually."

He gave her a flat look. "I look the same as I do everyday."

"Time is a construct!"

"How can the concept of Eternity be a thing, _Pepper,_ if our distinctly short existences on Earth can't be compared to it?" Tony demanded.

Conceding his admittedly good point, she sent an exasperated glance skyward, momentarily appreciating the irony that they couldn't get that much higher than _this_.

Heaven.

Boy, it was beautiful. It really, really was.

There wasn't a single corner that didn't emanate light. She had also been privately tickled to discover that the Pearly Gates were, in fact, made of pearl after all. Wide streets of gold brick ribboned out and crisscrossed crystal streams and lush gardens. _Said_ gardens were filled with more colors that she never knew existed, glittering in literal trillions of different species of flowers. And, as it turned out, the grass really _was_ greener on the Other Side.

( _There-_ now that was a tasteful joke. She made a mental note to herself to share that one with Jarvis later.)

But really, truly, it was more than it's stellar manifestations of beauty. It was endless, incomprehensible love. Incredible happiness. Unspeakable joy.

It was a promised land worth waiting for.

Supposedly, there was even rumored to be peace out there, waiting to be enjoyed, if she could only get out of deflecting Tony's bad jokes for once.

"You should accept her compliments, Anthony," Jarvis interjected finally. "Anyways, you two fight like an old married couple."

"Good!" Tony cried loudly.

Caught off guard, Pepper laughed.

Tony's intensity instantly softened, brightened.

"I love you very much," he informed her, as succinct and as sure as he had always been.

"Heaven knows that I love you too," Pepper murmured. She kissed him soundly and leaned back a little. "Hey, Tony? Can I ask you something?"

"Of course you can," he brushed off.

"Ha, alright-why didn't you program JARVIS to be as charming as the real Jarvis?"

" _Please_ , Madam." Jarvis set his empty cup down firmly on his and Tony's shared marble bench. "I've been asking myself the same question since he invented it. Or...me, should I say."

Tony had the grace to look shocked. "This...is an ambush, I think."

"No, wait, I'm serious!" Pepper tried. "I want to know. Surely you were capable of it."

He shrugged. "Er, yeah. Yeah, I guess so."

"So why didn't you? Our JARVIS was always so sarcastic in comparison, now that I've met the real deal."

"Don't let him fool you, that part of him was real."

Jarvis scoffed.

Tony smiled a bit, but then he glanced up at her, and his expression turned earnest. "Well, you see...the thing was, it just would have never been good _enough._ "

Jarvis coughed, clearly touched and surprised, but Tony ducked his head. "It's a shame ALIE didn't turn out as nice as JARVIS, huh?"

Pepper sighed. She knew that it bugged Tony that the world's end had almost been brought about by programming-something that he had held in the same regard as fine art or music.

"It's His plan, Tony. You know that."

It had been a quiet day in Heaven the day the bombs fell. It was never China at all that had instigated the nuclear apocalypse, but ALIE. Heaven had waited and watched, for a long time, as those irradiated on Earth slowly built their way back up from the ground, and the ones on the Ark waited, too.

The fact that it was called the Ark escaped no-one. It wasn't nearly as sea-worthy (or space-worthy) as _Noah's_ , that was for sure. It had been nice for a while, but those of them that were guardian angels had worked hard making sure that the oxygen hadn't failed any sooner than was absolutely possible. And it was by no means a mistake that the group of one hundred children ( _children!_ Pepper had been _furious)_ had even survived the violent re-entry into the atmosphere at all. Rest assured, they'd had holy help.

"No, you're right, Pepper. I think it's starting to look up for Earth."

"Oh? You do?" Pepper was surprised.

"I do." Tony scrunched up his face. "Well, I've been watching that one kid...Murphy. I like him. He's sort of a jerk, but he's _smart_."

"Sounds like someone else we used to know," Jarvis said airly, but still fondly.

"He'll call out ALIE's bullcrap, sooner or later." Tony ignored Jarvis and nodded firmly. He made to stand, and Pepper slipped off of his knee.

"You think?" Pepper asked, looking up at him.

"Gotta have faith," Tony shrugged gently.

But Pepper caught the fleeting glance he sent toward where the clouds in the floor of Heaven dipped off-far, far away-and you could see everything. Where you could see Earth.

She knew that he didn't exactly miss it in comparison to eternity in Paradise, but he had been a superhero. She supposed that his concern was instinct.

"Maybe you should practice what you preach, then, hm?" She suggested.

"You're right," Tony said quietly. "You're absolutely right. Maybe I need to go talk to Him again about that."

"His answer will be the same as mine," Pepper reminded. "You know that."

"No offense, Pep, but it always sounds better coming from Him," Tony grimaced playfully.

She didn't dispute it. Instead, she kissed his cheek before slipping her hand into his.

"It'll all be okay, one day," Pepper whispered.

"One day," Tony agreed.

A new, sudden thought cheered her again, and she tugged on his hand to lead him out from under the big olive tree where their bench was sat.

"C'mon, you two. I hear Happy's teaching the angels how to box properly today."

"What are we waiting for?"

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